Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Weeping is known to significantly reduce tray and point efficiencies in distillation tray columns. Recently, an analytical method was developed to simultaneously determine tray and point efficiencies in case of weeping. The approach, however, is based on the assumption of uniformly distributed weeping, while experimental studies generally reveal non-uniform weeping. In this study, the effect of several non-homogeneous weeping distributions on tray and point efficiencies is evaluated. In particular, state-of-the-art non-uniform weeping distributions, which have low spatial resolution, have been compared with arbitrarily assumed high resolution weeping distributions. The results illustrate that accurately quantifying the weeping distribution on the tray, allows to significantly improve the accuracy of calculated tray and point efficiencies.